Highlights

The game's epilogue won't ship on disc or be available on preloading

Square Enix implies that it's not necessary for understanding the game

A secret movie will also be added post-launch

Kingdom Hearts 3 will have an epilogue. However you'll need an Internet connection to watch it. Reason being, it doesn't ship with the game which is out on January 25 in Japan and January 29 internationally. This was discovered when the official Twitter account for the game tweeted the Kingdom Hearts 3 post-launch updates. These include the addition of a story recap known as Memory Archive, bringing fans up to date with the series' story up to Kingdom Hearts 3, data fixes, and an epilogue along with a secret movie. It's disappointing that Square Enix decided to take this approach as it means that not all of the game's content is on disc.

What's worse is how the company has decided to spin this piece of news, implying that the epilogue isn't important to the understanding of the game.

"The epilogue and secret movie are video content that will enhance player's enjoyment of the world of #KingdomHearts," a tweet from the company reads. This was followed by another that claims the epilogue and post-credits secret movie to be "additional elements" implying that Kingdom Hearts 3's epilogue isn't core or intrinsic to the game's experience. Odd when you consider that an epilogue is meant to bring closure to a game's ending. Evidently Square Enix's definition differs wildly. This was followed by another tweet confirming that you'd need an Internet connection to download the content.

Kingdom Hearts 3 update release schedule

Tuesday, January 29: update 1.01 adds several data fixes and the Memory Archive that can be accessed and viewed from the game's title menu at any time.

Wednesday, January 30: epilogue video. Players have to finish the game to see it.

Thursday, January 31: secret video. Players need to finish the game and seen it's ending. Furthermore, certain criteria have to be fulfilled while playing the game to view it. The criteria depends on the selected difficulty level.

It's disappointing that Square Enix decided to take this approach to making Kingdom Hearts 3. All of its content should be on disc or in the initial download. Forcing players to update the game to get a full understanding of what its developers set out to achieve is simply abusing paying users' bandwidth and connectivity, more so when you consider how expensive games are.

The company should have taken a leaf out of Sony's or Sega's book, wherein all the content necessary to the experiences is on disc or the initial download, with updates spent on adding to it rather than forcing players to go online when they shouldn't.

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